It took Rick Grinnell and the Trump-appointed board of directors at the Kennedy Center all of nine months to cause plummeting ticket sales and revenue to fall off a cliff. Additionally, Grenell, under the Board’s negligent watch, has engaged in self-dealing, corruption, and fiscal malfeasance. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse produced the receipts. Ric, now it’s your turn to show your receipts.
Based on Washington Post reporting and receipts and contracts leaked to Senator Whitehouse’s office, Grenell and his cronies have given deep discounts to far-right political organizations’ use of the Center’s facilities and have also vouchered the center for luxury accommodations at the Watergate Hotel and lavish dining and champagne services at Kennedy Center Restraunts. To top it off, Grenell has awarded contracts to friends and close associates and recently signed a no-fee contract with FIFA for exclusive use of the center over 13 days in November/December.
FIFA gets 13 Days of Use of The Kennedy Center for Zero Dollars Absent Creative Accounting Jiggery Pokery
While the Center is hemorrhaging ticket sales revenue, Grenell is handing out discounts and lucrative contracts to conservative outlets for rentals and to friends, and providing free services to FIFA, a 6-billion-dollar organization.
The contract signed with FIFA for its annual draw to be held at the Center on December 5th is Exhibit One of Kennedy Center leadership’s fiscal mismanagement.
Ric Grinnell alleges that, although they are not charging FIFA for its use of the Kennedy Center, FIFA is paying upwards of $7.4 million for it. However, based on the contracts that we have reviewed, there is a delta between the calculated loss from moving NSO concerts, canceling NSO concerts, and canceling other groups that had already contracted with the Kennedy Center, and there’s also lost ticket revenue for the three weeks that the Kennedy Center will be shut down. The costs and associated losses from the FIFA draw exceed the amount that FIFA is allegedly paying the Kennedy Center through sponsorship and donations.
Grenell claims that FIFA is paying $7.4 million to use the Kennedy Center for 13 days in Nov/December. We looked at the receipts and contracts that were made available by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office and came to our own conclusions. According to Grenell’s non-so-reliable word, FIFA will pay the Kennedy Center $5 million in sponsorship fees to cover labor and equipment rental costs and donate $2.4 million to the Center.
The estimated cost to the center for the FIFA 13-day rental is about 7.4 million. This includes labor costs, equipment rentals, rescheduling fees for NSO and other prior contracts, lost revenue from prior contracts, and rental at fair market value for the center for 13 days. Grenell’s calculations, however, miss several points:
Any other organization that wanted to rent out the entire Kennedy Center and push out all other performances and contracted shows would have to pay a total of $7.4 million to the center.
Here, instead, FIFA is only paying $5 million in sponsorship fees (whatever that means). They are then donating an additional $2.4 million. This presumably covers the total costs of $7.4 million for their 13-day blackout at the Center. We should not treat this $2.4 million as equivalent to paying for the use of the center. Donations are accorded tax benefits. FIFA should be required to pay the market value of their use of labor and facilities at the Kennedy Center, which is $7.4 million. If they decide to provide a donation above and beyond the fair market value good on them. But for Grenell to pass this off as business as usual is dishonest and robbing the center of the revenue it would otherwise recoup were FIFA paying fair market value.
FIFA is a $6 billion organization that should be expected to pay fair market value – there is no reason to offer a discount to a $ 6 billion organization, especially when the center is hemorrhaging cash. This does not even begin to address concerns based on FIFA’s troubling history of paying their debts to labor and respecting union contracts where they have been before.
During these 13 days, the Center is pushing out its resident National Symphony Orchestra for both a classics concert of Mahler and a screening of Home Alone, along with multiple local arts organization concerts, performances, and rentals that have been canceled. These reschedules and cancellations represent over $700,000 in lost revenue and rental fees for the Center. This loss in revenue comes at a particularly sensitive time at the Center, when ticket revenue is already plummeting due to Grenell’s mismanagement.
Lavish Spending on Food and Luxury Accommodations for Grenell and Friends.
The receipts gathered by Senator Whitehouse show that the center provided luxury accommodations at the Watergate Hotel for new senior executives totaling $27,185. These accommodations span several months in May, June, and July for Lisa Dale (Senior Vice President), Marlon Bateman (senior contractor involved in staff terminations), Somer Salmon, Taylor Strand (Senior marketing official at the Center), and Danny Bartolla. The Kennedy Center paid for rooms at rates ranging from $296-$575 a night. The center even paid a no-show charge for a full-night reservation that was missed.
Grenell claims this is standard procedure for new hires. For context, the federal government’s maximum reimbursement rate for hotels in DC during this period is $276 per night. Why is Danny Bartolla being reimbursed for a luxury stay at the Watergate for $575 a night ($300 over the per diem rate that fed employees have to abide by)? Also, who is Danny Bartolla and Somer Solomon, and why is the Kennedy Center paying for their luxury accommodations? Other stays are also in excess of the per diem rate.
Additionally, receipts totalling $10,733 at Kennedy Center restaurants charge for multiple champagne services, multiple bottles of Rose, VIP Gold card privileges, shrimp cocktails, rack of lamb, crab cakes, etc, including a $740 check for Nick Meade’s birthday. Why are Kennedy Center donors paying for Ric’s friend’s Birthday? Grenell claims these charges were for fundraising purposes. Ok Ric, show us the receipts. Also of concern is that several of these meals were with people who hold leadership positions in political organizations you founded or led, including Fix California and Fix USA. Who else were you wining and dining, and what was their donation after your meals with them?
If this isn’t a let-them-eat-cake moment, I don’t know what is. While the rest of the Kennedy Center is reeling from the past 9 months of mismanagement by Grenell and Trump’s board and the plummeting ticket sales, Grenell is living high on the hog with his friends on the Kennedy Center expense account.
Senator Whitehouse’s letter and receipts also illustrate troubling discounts that Grenel has given to Conservative friends, including News Now and The Conservative Action Committee. These discounts are not only financially unwise during this storm at the Kennedy Center but further illustrate leadership’s desire to make the Kennedy Center into a partisan lightning rod in the culture wars. This has no place at the people’s Kennedy Center.
We demand accountability from Ric Grenell and the Board. The board has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the Center’s fiscal outlook is good. Allowing Grenell’s self-dealing, corruption, and fiscal mismanagement under their watch is a dereliction of duty. Ric Grenel, back your statements up with receipts. Show us why what you are doing is above board!
Sign our petition demanding accountability from Grenell and the Kennedy Center Board.
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